Thursday, August 6th 2018
Assignment:
Write a plan in 500 words for finding the mentor you need at this point in your life:
What kind of leader do you feel like you need to become? Why do you believe you need this kind of mentor (consider your responses to last week’s survey on the leadership scenario)?
What specific leadership behaviors do you feel you need to cultivate?
What do you want your mentor to do for you?
What do you need to do to prepare for mentorship?
What will you do to find a mentor?
To find a mentor, I must realize first what type of mentorship I need. At this point in life, I am very confused on many thing. If it is one thing I know, it is that I am lost. I have many things going in my life towards improving myself but I do lack the guidance and support from a mentor. I want to become a more confident and risk-taking leader. I would also hope to gain more perspective on other cultures and practices. I wish to gain access to opportunities in the international affairs career realm and also guidance in fine tuning what I actually want to do as a career. I want to also know how to deal with continuing to improve myself when I am dealing with depressive episodes. I also wish to improve my leadership skills when working with others. I often seek out the opinions of a group regarding every situation instead of realizing that I do have the potential to have the best idea and I do not necessarily need to hear out every person’s idea just to not take it. I want my mentor to be someone who has a career in international affairs and is confident enough in their job to take it to the next level whenever possible. I would hope that my mentor be well traveled and truly have learned different things from their travel that they incorporate in their everyday life and their job. I want a mentor that is willing to seek out internships, study abroad opportunities, and finding connections I could make that would help me get insight on different jobs in the field. This is more of a wish than a need but I would like for my mentor to either have experience with depression, rather it be personally or dealing closely with someone who has it. This is important because the way I deal with things are different. I’ve dealt with people who have thought that I just simply wasn’t trying and ignoring every other sign that lead to something actually being wrong. I don’t like to say it aloud because frankly it’s not everyone’s business and me disclosing doesn’t mean that they would change their approach with me or understand me anymore. So instead of making that a requirement, I would much rather say that I need a mentor who is observant and aware of the feelings of others. Along with that, I would like to have a mentor who has the more collaborative approach when it comes to leadership so that they can help me refine my ways of leadership. To prepare for my mentor, I have to make sure that I am fully committed to wanting to improve myself and that I am willing to follow through with the advice given to me. I have been in a slump lately but I believe that I am ready to be productive towards my future. I feel like I already have two potential mentors in mind. For my career goals, I have a teacher who I know has done pretty much everything in the field of International Affairs. I have gotten an A in both classes I have had with him and he knows my face. For the other mentor I have in mind, he is also in the political science department and I have a stronger relationship with him. I feel like I could talk to him more about the leadership I want to achieve because his class is based on collaborative efforts. In order for me to get the mentorship I want from these two teachers, I must first build a relationship with the both of them, be sure of my choices and state my intentions of being their mentee.